- Wed May 13, 2015 4:33 pm
#57972
Marco Rubio proved he can hang with the big hawks in his first foreign policy speech since he declared his run for president. The student has now become the teacher.Marco Rubio delivered a master class on foreign policy that spoke to the soul of Americans.Told you guys years ago, Rubio is our next President.
In New York City, before the Council of Foreign Relations and their foreign policy experts, Rubio showed himself to be a peer. Hillary Clinton declined to appear before the Council to answer questions.
In an hour before the Council, he spoke about everything from Filipino typhoon survivors to keeping South China Sea transit ways accessible—and at one point corrected longtime broadcaster and forum moderator Charlie Rose about the extent to which there are Iranian fighters in Iraq.
And he got into the details: he condemned Iranian efforts to develop a long-range ballistic missile capability, a specific gripe of hawkish Iranian experts that doesn’t get much attention. He said the conditions don’t exist for a two-state solution; that the VA system needs to be reformed; that he’s open to Ukraine joining NATO.
When Charlie Rose asked Rubio if he would have still invaded Iraq given the benefit of hindsight Rubio swatted it away swiftly.
“Not only would I not have been in favor of it, President Bush would not have been in favor of it,” Rubio said.
Ultimately, Rubio’s appeal for a foreign policy based in morality is the strategy most designed to pluck at the heartstrings of Americans.
Rubio hit all those notes: lofty words, with a measured tone—citing JFK and Pope Pius the 12th.
“America plays a part on the world stage for which there is no understudy,” Rubio said. He went around the world, criticising the regimes of the so-called Islamic State, Iran, Russia, China, Syria and North Korea. “Mankind remains afflicted, and… its destiny still largely remains in our hands.”
“Vulnerable nations still depend on us to deter aggression from their larger neighbors,” Rubio continued. “Oppressed peoples still turn their eyes toward our shores, wondering if we can hear their cries, wondering if we notice their afflictions.”
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, Rubio is regularly briefed—often several times a week—on the hot zones of conflict around the globe. The Council which is made up of Democrats and Republicans gave Rubio a standing ovation for his masterful performance. Many in the media also joined in the standing ovation which is something almost unheard of in modern politics.
- By johnforbes
- By brandon